Thu-Van Cunningham, of Phoenix, reads messages left by well-wishers as she visits a makeshift memorial in honor of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain at McCain's office Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Phoenix. McCain, the war hero who became the GOP's standard-bearer in the 2008 election, died at the age of 81, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018, after battling brain cancer. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Flags frame David Carrasco, a member of the POW-MIA-KIA Honor Guard, as he stands watch in honor of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain at a local mortuary where McCain is being kept Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Phoenix. McCain, the war hero who became the GOP's standard-bearer in the 2008 election, died at the age of 81, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018, after battling brain cancer. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, is joined by Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, during a rally with supporters on election night in Phoenix, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Ted Olsen, of Phoenix, looks to place an American flag at a makeshift memorial in honor of the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain at McCain's office Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Phoenix. McCain, the war hero who became the GOP's standard-bearer in the 2008 election, died at the age of 81, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018, after battling brain cancer. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

A wooden spike and an orange traffic cone mark the spot, Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018 where Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will be buried on the grounds of the U. S. Navel Academy in Annapolis, Md. McCain is set to be buried next to his best friend, Adm. Chuck Larson, from his days at the U.S. Naval Academy _ and not in Arlington National Cemetery with his father and grandfather. (AP Photo/Laurie Kellman)

From left, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., speak to reporters at the Capitol as the Republican-controlled Senate unable to fulfill their political promise to repeal and replace "Obamacare" because of opposition and wavering within the GOP ranks,, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

The American flag flies at half-staff at the Capitol in honor of Sen. John McCain of Arizona who died Saturday of brain cancer, in Washington, Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. McCain will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Donald Trump has finally managed to shock himself — realizing that he was being an unpresidential jerk by keeping the White House flag at half-staff for the late Sen. John McCain for less than 48 hours.

At a historic moment in U.S. history, Trump failed America and once again proved how petty he really is. The flag was all the way up the pole most of the day yesterday. But after massive pressure from both sides, the flag was lowered once again to half-staff in the late afternoon.

McCain is an American hero who dedicated his life to his country and that flag at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is not Trump’s flag.

It is our flag.

It is the flag McCain fought for all those years while he was tortured as a prisoner of war. It is the flag he defended during his three decades in Washington.

If Trump wants his flags flying high at all of his golf courses, that is his choice, but only lowering the flag over the White House for a day was disgraceful.

Trump’s brief tweeted statement about McCain’s passing is not the problem. Using hallowed American ground to continue his feud with a dead man is.

The rift began when Trump inappropriately insulted McCain’s service to our country — which included enduring years of torture in a North Vietnamese prison after his Navy jet was shot down.

“He’s not a war hero,” Trump said at a Republican presidential forum in 2015. “He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

McCain, meanwhile, remained critical of Trump to the end, calling his policies “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.”

No one expects false statements of sorrow or respect from Trump. But finally, he has been forced to show a modicum of presidential grace.

McCain may be gone but his support from across the country is clear.

And, for once, America was able to force the president’s hand and have him do the right thing.